Soul Stealer
by AllTheNamesAreTakenAlready
Summary: As an older, hardbitten Harry fights to protect the family that he feels distant from, people fight to give the lovable Lily bits of their soul to safeguard. T just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Harry Potter.

Okay NY, this is me dedicating a story to you. Enjoy (I hope).

I am going to add a Lily/Scorpius romance in the next couple of chapters, so bear with me all you match addicts, I'm getting there.

The light was glaring and it bore down heavily upon us as we worked. It was a grizzly scene and the obscene heat only served to heighten the festering sense of evil that hung in the air like a foul stench. The body was that of a young woman, blond, probably pretty before death had turned her tanned skin to a sallow shade of unearthly blue-grey. The smell of dead flesh rose bile in my throat but I had seen this too many times for it to upset my stomach like it used to. I joined the Aurors shortly after the Battle of Hogwarts. They were only too glad to enlist Harry Potter to their cause. For about five years, things were reasonably quiet. Then the villains came out of hiding. Since then, I have seen more unsavoury deaths than I care to comment on. It ages you quickly, being around death, makes you realise how fragile your tie to this earth really is, how fleeting and how easily it can be severed.

This murder however, set the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and gave me an ill feeling that usually escapes me. This girl was unmarked, her death undoubtedly the product of the killing curse. There was only one blemish on her skin but it was so unsettling, so familiar that it frightened me. I saw that mark in the mirror every day; a lightning bolt, cut precisely into her forehead. I turned to Hermione, who was looking grim. She had not always intended to become an Auror but it turned out that she had the stomach for it. It had hardened her too, changed her irrevocably.

"What do you think?" she asked me quietly.

I sighed and leaned back against the wall, turning my head away from the corpse and it's unnaturally sprawled limbs. Somehow, you could always tell when someone was dead. No living person could ever take on that position of artlessly spread disarray, like a doll with cut strings, left to rot on the floor.

"I don't know," I said quietly, "It feels like a threat,"

"It isn't a copy cat killer," Hermione said, "This was never Voldemort's style,"

Another one of the crew hissed at the sound of the name. Even now, so long after I killed the man, people fear him still. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"He's dead. Now get a grip, will you?"

The crew came to take away the body and I watched the veiled gurney roll by. It worried me slightly that I was so jaded to these things that this death had no particular impact on me. The day that I had stopped being outraged by murders and become resigned to them instead was the day that I truly began to change. It is costing me Ginny but there isn't much I can do to stop it. I'll lose her soon, just like I let my horror at death slip away, water between spread fingers.

My owl, Daisy, so named by my daughter, landed heavily on a street sign nearby. Her chest heaved and her breath came in fast little pants, her feathers were ruffled. Frowning and feeling a growing sense of alarm, I took the letter from her leg and read.

_Potter,_

_I hope you have enjoyed the surprise I left you. While you were preoccupied, I took the opportunity to visit your family. You have a lovely daughter. _

_Regards, _

_V_

A chill ran down my spine and dread squeezed my heart with spindly fingers.

"Lily," I whispered.

I disapperated but deep in the pit of my stomach, I knew that I was too late.


	2. Chapter 2

Gentle sounds, the quiet beeping of machines registered within my confused mind. Somewhere nearby, someone was moaning quietly and I felt bad for them. They sounded like they were in a lot of pain. Where was I, where people made sounds of such suffering? I pushed myself up onto my elbows and looked around.

I was inside a hospital room, alone but for the occupants in the other two beds of the joint room. One was a mystery patient behind a curtain; the one who was moaning. Nearest the door, a scholarly looking man with wispy pale hair pushed his glasses up his nose as he read his book. He seemed outwardly unharmed, although he grimaced each time he moved his left arm. I wondered silently what was wrong with him. Actually, come to think of it, I wasn't sure what was wrong with _me_.

I wore a medical bracelet around my wrist but the numbers and letters that were scrawled in a tight hand were unforthcoming. The man with the book looked over at me.

"You're awake," he observed.

"So are you," I said with a small giggle.

He seemed tolerant of my too-literal joking, because a good-natured smile tilted his mouth up at the corner.

"You have been asleep for a long time, little Potter,"

"Have I?" I asked. My memory seems fogged and I am disoriented but there is nothing to suggest to me that I have been asleep for too long, except maybe for a feeling of heavy limbs and a slightly hollow stomach.

"Two weeks," he told me, "Your parents have been in here every day, besides themselves with worry,"

I frown. My mother and father haven't been getting on that well lately. He seems to translate my frown for what it is, because he tells me sombrely, "They haven't been coming at the same time. They shout too much when they do,"

A doctor walks in then and the man goes back to his book. He waves his wand and nods at whatever it is he finds. Then he shines a light in my eyes and asks me questions that I find patronising.

"What is your name?"

"Lilly Luna Potter," I tell him.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen,"

And so on and so forth. It grows tedious very quickly. Finally, the doctor sits back and sighs heavily. I can feel bad news coming on. Perhaps I am about to find out why I am in here; or maybe I will be given a death sentence.

"How do you feel?" he asks me carefully.

"I'm fine," I say uncertainly. Should there be something wrong with me? "Why? What's happened?"

"You don't remember anything from two weeks ago?" he asks.

"The last thing I remember," I say, wracking my brain, "I think it's unpacking the groceries with mum. Then… nothing,"

He makes a steeple with his fingers, "Let me tell you a story," he says, "Tell me if it sounds familiar, okay?"

I nod, nonplussed.

"You unpacked the groceries with your mother. Then your older brothers went with her to practice Quidditch but you chose to stay home and finish writing a letter to your friend. You were left alone…"

"Stop," I say suddenly, my heartbeat suddenly pounding in my throat.

He watched me carefully? "Why?"

I just shake my head. I can't remember… but the feeling of panic, that ill sensation of pure terror makes me want to scream. I just have to get it out. I can't hear any more.

"What happened to me?" I whisper.

He opens his mouth, changes what he is going to say and then rubs his temples. Clearly, there is no easy way to break this to me.

"Lily…" he says carefully, "Do you know what a horcrux is?"


	3. Chapter 3

I sat on the Hogwarts express, feeling very far away as I fiddled with the bracelet on my wrist. I was not allowed to take the bracelet off. It tracked my every movement, recorded the magic that was done around me. I almost had not been allowed to return to school, almost had been confined somewhere within the musty depths of the Ministry, where other dangerous artefacts were locked away. Any other Horcrux would have been destroyed outright. I was a person though. To be honest, no one was quite sure what to do with me.

I still couldn't remember who had done this to me. I was of no help when the aurors tried to figure out if He Who Must Not be Named was back. All that I knew was that whenever someone talked about what had happened, I began shrieking hysterically until they stopped. If they pushed, I tended to faint.

I was very, very glad that I had finally been allowed to come back to Hogwarts. Things at home were not pleasant. My father had thrown himself into his work with a frenzy and my mother broke up into tears a lot when I was around. It was better to get away for a while.

My friends had tried to sit with me but I had turned them away. Somehow, although I was moving on with my life, I felt different. I just couldn't identify with their silly girlish problems, not in the face of what had happened. I couldn't stand their selfish tears, either. They cried because they were afraid and because what had happened made them sad and uncomfortable. They did not shed one tear for my wellbeing. So I sat on my own.

The door to my compartment slid open and someone slipped inside without waiting for an invitation. He stood rigidly and peered through a crack in the door. I watched him with my head tilted in thought.

"Who's chasing you?" I asked.

Scorpius Malfoy, a boy who I did not know that well, jumped guiltily. He rubbed the back of his neck, "Umm. I jinxed the new Potions Master and he's out for my blood,"

I felt myself smile. Here was a problem I could deal with, "Why did you do that?"

"Because he just wouldn't shut up about extracting bezoars. It was either that or puke on his shoes and the jinx seemed more dignified. Well, for me, at least,"

I sighed. Scorpius had always seemed like a bit of a rascal, even from afar. I wondered now if he was a little bit masochistic. Jinxing teachers was a bad idea.

"Why don't you sit down? If he comes, I'll call out and tell him you're not here,"

He smiled uncertainly and sat down. There was an uncomfortable tension in the air.

"I don't see you around much," I observed.

He shifted awkwardly, "Yeah, well, our parents didn't get on well,"

I laughed, "You know, my uncle asked me to jinx you once,"

"Thanks for not taking his advice,"

I shrugged, "I'm not going to keep fighting my parents' stupid fights. I waste enough time picking my own,"

Scorpius snorted at that, "Right. The placid Lily Potter starting fist fights in the halls,"

"You can't imagine that at all, can you?"

He shook his head without skipping a beat, "I don't even know you that well and I'm pretty sure you couldn't hit someone if your life depended on it,"

I suddenly felt cold, "I wish that wasn't true. Maybe I should have got into more fist fights before last summer,"

He frowned, "What happened?"

I waved my bracelet at him and the thing felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, "No idea; but now I'm busy keeping some Voldemort wannabe alive,"

His eyes widened, "You're…? Holy crap, that isn't good,"

I couldn't help it. I started laughing, so hard that I had to bend over and hold my sides together. As he watched me with growing alarm, I wished that everyone took things like Scorpius Malfoy. Life would be so much easier.


	4. Chapter 4

I had a dream that night.

At first, it was a normal dream, a skewed version of the welcoming feast that we had every year at the start of school. People's faces were distorted and they displayed a wide range of emotions, none of which I wanted to see. I screamed at people in the dream, vented all of my frustration. It was something that I hadn't done in real life. Scorpius Malfoy was there as well, telling me funny jokes that made me feel better. He was the one part of the dream that appeared as it always did in the waking world.

Then it changed. The images became vivid, the sounds clearer, scents sharper. I forgot that I was dreaming. For a moment, as I took in my odd surroundings, I felt nothing. Then terror began to trickle down my spine. My teeth chattered and I hugged my shoulders. There was a foreboding scent on the air, like the too-sweet stench of rotten fruit. I couldn't see any source of light but the small, featureless room that I was standing in seemed to be illuminated from everywhere and nowhere, the only thing about it that was remotely dream like. The too-close walls were the colour of damp earth and my panic rose as I wondered if I had been buried alive. I was going to run out of air and suffocate. A whine escaped my mouth and I pressed my hands against my stomach as I sank down to the floor.

I sat there, freezing in the unearthly cold, my imagination wandering into dangerous territory. I don't know how long it was that I sat there on my own, only that it hadn't been long enough. Because I wasn't alone anymore. Somebody placed a blanket around my shoulders and I froze in place. There was something familiar about this… a scream rose in my throat but I couldn't force it passed the lump that was taking up most of the room there.

I suddenly noticed a mirror that hadn't been on the wall before. In it, I could see myself… and the man that was crouched beside me. I could tell a few things about him. He was young and built like a sprinter, his hair blond and attractively unkempt. His facial features were hidden by shadows that didn't exist anywhere else in the room and I couldn't tell who he was. Something in me recognised him though. This was the man who had hurt me, the man I couldn't even remember without him hurting me again. He spoke in a voice like slick oil and my skin crawled.

"Yes… you know me, don't you Lily?"

He traced a finger along my jaw line and I shuddered.

"Oh," he said softly, bringing his lips close to my ear, "I would never hurt you. You know that,"

I whimpered and screamed shrilly when he placed an arm around me and pulled me onto his lap.

"Will you do something for me?"

His breath was warm against the skin of my cheek. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"W-what do you want m-me to do?" I managed through my chattering teeth.

His lips brushed my cheek and I felt him smile, "I'll show you,"

He pulled me to my feet and led me away. The dank, underground room lengthened as he went. As we walked hand-in-hand, my mind worked desperately to find a way out. There was no escape though. This tunnel didn't even exist without him in it. The place where we had been had melted into nothing as we left it behind.

We stopped and the stench that I had first noticed earlier was overpowering. It rose bile in my throat. The far side of the circular cavern we now stood in was cloaked in shadow. He waved a hand and light flared, revealing a single flash of terrifying imagery. I screamed. I screamed for all I was worth and I didn't stop until my throat gave out. He held me and stroked my hair until I gave up and broke down into useless, pathetic sobs that ruined his shirt with saltwater.

"That's what you want?" I said.

"That's all I'm asking," he replied, "For now,"

"Show me again," I said, "Longer… I need to be sure I saw what I saw,"

He nodded and the room filled with light once more. This time it stayed on, fully revealing the horror before me. I went over to what lay on the floor in a daze. I kept expecting it to move; but it didn't stir, not once. The man was middle aged, with grey flecking his dark hair. I fancied that he once would have held himself proudly. Now he was sprawled artlessly across the floor in this nameless, inconstant place, glassy eyes staring blankly into death. I felt too empty to react.

"Who is it?" I surprised myself by asking.

"A muggle," replied the man, "A bad person. He kills people and worse,"

"And… you want me to kill him?"

"I do,"

I stood up and faced him bravely, staring at where I thought his eyes were, "No,"

He was standing close to me before I realised he had moved, bodies almost touching. He bent down and his lips were inches from mine. His too-warm breath floated around me in a hazy cloud, making me dizzy.

"You forget," he said with quiet menace, "I own you, Lily Potter. You are _mine_,"

The dream changed again and it was a relief. I was creeping through the Gryffindor common room, clutching a knife in my hands so hard that my knuckles where white. I stopped above my brother Albus's bed. I placed the knife against his throat. The voice that came out of my mouth was not mine and I felt my eyes widen in surprise.

"Is this a dream?" said the voice, "How can you tell reality from fantasy? Perhaps life itself is a dream and we only truly wake up…"

The knife caressed Albus's throat, drawing a delicate bead of blood.

"… in death,"

Another voice, one groggy with sleep, came from another of the boy's beds.

"Lily? What are you doing... oh my god,"

I had about twenty seconds to be confused before he shouted the alarm.

"ALBUS! WAKE UP!"

There was a huge commotion as the entire common room was woken. People shouted, someone tackled me from behind and wrestled the knife away from me. As I was dragged, sobbing and broken out of the room, I realised one thing. This had stopped being a dream as soon as I had left his cavern. I had nearly killed my brother.

He really did own me.


	5. Chapter 5

I don't know what I was expecting. Fear, anger, accusation, a whole lot of shouting. Well, I got the shouting but it wasn't aimed at me. No, when I was released from the room I had been locked up in, my family were all there. They greeted me with compassion, love, worry. Albus did seem afraid but for me, not for him, as if I had been the one to almost be killed in my sleep. It was harder to bear than any shouting. I didn't deserve this.

I had never known until now that both of my parents had actually been possessed while they were at school, both by Voldemort himself. It seems to run in the family. Except that I know my guy isn't really Voldemort, whatever he wrote on that letter the day I got hurt. I've said this a couple of times but no one is listening to me. They're talking like I'm not even in the room.

"So just teach her Occlumency!" shouted my dad, right in Head Mistress McGonagall's face.

The elderly woman was highly unimpressed, "Mr Potter, I am afraid that whether or not life at the moment has dealt Lily a fair hand, I cannot allow her to continue to stay here if she is a danger to my other students,"

I nodded my agreement. The staff and other important people in making the decision about my future at Hogwarts were pretty divided. About half of them wanted to keep me and I was firmly behind the people who wanted my possessed ass out of there. I'm not going to kill anyone because of a voice in my head and if that means I have to live in a cave and eat lichen, then that's what I'll do. Sadly, I lost the debate and my parents won. The deal they struck, I think my cave actually sounds nicer.

I am allowed to stay at school but never without supervision. They are going to assign me a buddy, someone who they think will be able to handle themselves if I suddenly turn murderous and who Voldemort is unlikely to want dead for the sake of it. Until they find a willing buddy for me, I'm going to be shadowed by teachers twenty four seven and I have to sleep in a room in the dungeons with the door locked. I'm scared that it will feel just like the cavern.

This all happened before the end of the school day. Professor Longbottom followed me around while I read up on my charms homework. I hated the feel of his eyes on me. It felt like if they kept treating me like a rabid animal, sooner or later that's what I would actually become. People tend to play the parts they are given and I will not be the person they fear I am. I'll prove them all wrong, somehow.

At dinner, there were large spaces left around me. No one wanted to sit next to the crazy possessed girl. Albus might have sat with me but he had Quidditch practice. So I picked forlornly at my food while the Potions Master watched me from the teacher's table.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when someone plonked themselves beside me on the bench. I let out a little squeal of shock and my hand fluttered at my chest as I looked accusingly at Scorpius Malfoy. He grinned.

"Did I startle you?"

"No, I just squeal all the time,"

He shook his head and leaned across the table to grab a chicken drumstick. I watched him uncertainly as he filled a plate with food.

"What are you doing?" I asked, "This is the Gryffindor table,"

He tapped his nose, "Good observation, eagle eyes,"

I huffed and he chuckled to himself.

"You're kinda cute when you're annoyed,"

"Well then I guess I'm always going to be cute around you. Really, what do you think you're doing here?"

He shrugged, "No one was using these seats. I thought I'd come and keep you company,"

I have to admit it, I was kind of touched. Still, I wasn't sure that he meant it. I'd heard bad things about the Malfoys and I wasn't in such a risk-taking mood lately.

"You aren't afraid I'll kill you?"

"You might, I guess," he said lightly, "But that would just be business as usual,"

"No, really! I'm serious,"

His eyes glittered, "So am I,"

I crossed my arms over my chest and his mouth quirked.

"Okay," he said, "Okay, don't blow anything. I don't think you could have killed your brother,"

"I'd drawn blood already. _I _thought I was going to do it,"

"But you didn't," he observed, "I still don't think you could hurt anyone, Lily, even to save yourself,"

He didn't talk for the rest of the meal but his presence was oddly comforting. Slowly, I relaxed and almost laughed out loud when he offered to walk me back to the common room.

"I don't get to sleep there anymore," I said with a worrying edge of hysteria, "It's the dungeons for me,"

He seemed troubled by that, "That's not right,"

"Neither is murder," I replied tightly.

He walked me there anyway. It was probably easier for him, because I have a feeling the Slytherin common room is somewhere around there. Again, he said nothing but just the fact that he was there when no one else was made me feel a little bit better. The teacher trailing us didn't break the silence but I could hear the footsteps of the third pair of shoes, warning me that we weren't alone. Not that I particularly wanted to be alone with Scorpius Malfoy, I reminded myself. My thoughts followed that path for a while and then I flushed, glancing over at him. He gave me a puzzled look.

"I'm going to prove you right," I blurted.

He raised his eyebrows, seeming more confused rather than less so.

"You said you didn't believe that I could hurt anyone,"

"I don't," he agreed.

"Well, I'm going to make sure you aren't wrong,"

He looked at me steadily, "I'm usually not,"


	6. Chapter 6

I didn't sleep that night. As dreadful as my cell was, it was better than the cavern that awaited me in my sleep. I might not be able to stay awake forever but I was sure as hell going to try. I shivered as the underground chill seeped into my bones. I had been given a thick quilt but the cold managed to permeate it, no matter how tightly I wrapped it around myself. My bracelet also seemed to draw the cold, sending it through my body as a constant reminder that I could never be safe again.

In the dark, my fears grew wings. They circled me, taunting me and shearing pieces from my soul. Eventually, they would devour me whole. I whimpered.

"Chin up," echoed a voice down the hallway, "I brought coffee,"

I jerked in shock and my mouth dropped open as Scorpius appeared outside my cell. He offered me a mug through the bars.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

He shrugged, "It occurred to me that if I went nutso in my sleep, I would want to stay awake for as long as I could. So I waited until I could sneak past Filch and then I came with caffeine,"

Hesitantly, I accepted the mug. I took a sip and warmth coursed through me. It was amazing how much that simple sensation could change my outlook on life.

"Thank you," I said quietly, "Shouldn't you go and get some sleep?"

He snorted, "Nope. Sleep is for potions class, not for night time,"

We sat in silence for a while. Despite the small kick the coffee had given me, after a few hours, my eyelids grew heavy. Terror flared within me but it couldn't hold my weariness at bay. Scorpius looked at me kindly and his presence was a balm.

He scooted forward and took my hand in his, "You go to sleep," he said quietly, "I promise I'll wake you up if anything goes wrong,"

Tears blurred my vision, "Promise you'll stay here?"

"All night," he said sincerely, "I promise,"

It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I was still afraid but suddenly I had help and it felt like, with support, I might be able to weather the bad stuff and survive for the good. Sure, the help was from an unexpected source; I didn't know why he was helping me but I wasn't in a position to be choosy. I dragged my little bed over to the bars of the cell, where I could lie down and keep a hold of his hand.

"Scorpius?" I asked, closing my eyes and laying my head back on my pillow.

"Hmm?"

"Talk to me?"

He exhaled slowly, "Want me to tell you a bedtime story?"

I nodded mutely, fixating on his words as a kind of beacon to burn away the fog of terror that kept me from resting.

"Okay. This is called 'the time that Scorpius Malfoy turned his classmate into a snail' It is a true story,"

Despite everything, I fell asleep smiling.


End file.
